Like a Plume of Smoke
by SailorAlkaline
Summary: Hadley was always happy until her best friend Tiara ran away. A lot of Uglies were disappearing, and rumors were that the Smoke was taking them. Hadley hated this Smoke-thing, and she wanted her revenge. She worried about Tiara, for she was very sickly. Hadley would do anything to save her friend, even if it meant the Smoke would fall at her feet.
1. Chapter 1

_"Revenge is like a plume of smoke. It seems tangible, but when you reach for it, you're grasping at nothing but air." - K. Lynn Smith_

"Nothing but air, huh?" I whisper.

I can't believe she's gone. They took her, and others. When is it going to stop? Why is everyone so afraid of becoming pretty? Being beautiful is the best part of our lives!

My room pings at me. _"You have a visitor, Hadley." _

"Thank you, let them in." I say. Most Uglies were mean to their rooms. I was always nice to it. After all, it never does anything to me but wake me up for breakfast and remind me when my classes are. It's like a parent, except nicer. Plus, it never makes fun of my red hair and buck teeth.

"Hey Rabbit." my friend Jaslene says to my back. I sigh. I hate when people call me that.

"Hi Bug-Eyes." Jaslene doesn't have doe eyes like Pretties do. She has black, bulgy eyes that look really scary at nighttime. I twist my interface ring to brighten the room up.

"Still scared of my eyes, I see." she says bitterly. I shake my head and open my morphos software. I stared at Tiara's Pretty face. She would have been beautiful. All of us, finally pretty!

Now it's just me and Jaslene. At the end of this week, I'd be moving to New Pretty Town, and in two more weeks, Jaslene would be joining me. Tiara would have completed the circle at the end of the month. We'd all be pretty in December. We all loved winter, and it was perfect for us to be beautiful snow angels, me with brown hair in loose waves, Jaslene with doe eyes and a short blonde bob and Tiara, no longer thin and tiny, a tall, healthy Pretty with straight, light brown hair. It would have been the time of our lives.

I close the morphos software and collapse onto my bed, curling up into a ball and sobbing. The Smoke had taken my best friend, and for all I know, she could be dying without her medication. She didn't take her meds with her, just left them in a pile on her bed. We're all devastated, but I haven't gone a day without crying. I trusted her so much, and I thought she trusted me! Why wouldn't she tell me she was unhappy? We could have found her a good doctor that maybe would have at least operated on her enough to fix her immune system. I just can't believe she's gone.

I feel Jaslene wrap her arms around me and kiss the back of my head. "I know it's hard, but we still have each other."

I hug my pillow and nod. "I'll always have you. Please don't leave me too." I whisper, squeezing my eyes shut.

"Why would I do that?" she asks me. I shrug and sigh. Why would she leave me?

The next day feels long and boring. I get stuck with cleaning duty and almost miss lunch. Meatloaf. I think I wouldn't mind missing meatloaf once in a while, but an Ugly's gotta eat.

I finally reach my room and lay on the bed.

_"Welcome back, Hadley." _the room says to me.

"Thank you." I mumble. I close my eyes and wrap myself up in my comforter. I know Jaslene's coming over, but I tried to sleep anyways. I know she'd just cuddle with me till I woke up. That's how it's always been with us.

These last few days, I needed Jaslene more than ever. Soon I'd be waiting another two weeks to see her again, and it would be hell. I've heard that some Pretties forget their friends because they're just so happy to finally be pretty. For me, that's a really scary thought! I don't want to forget Jaslene, I just... I love her too much to break that bond over being pretty.

_"You have a visitor, Hadley."_

"Let her in." I mumble, my eyes still closed. I hear the door open, and Jaslene's footsteps. The bed sinks under her weight, and her arms wrap around me.

"I'm gonna miss you a lot." she says softly.

"I'll miss you too. I hope we get to live in the same mansion."  
"Me too."

We laid there like that for hours. I don't sleep all night. When I look at my clock, it says 3:00 AM. It's Thursday. Saturday is my birthday. I turn around to look at Jaslene. She's sound asleep, the moonlight illuminating her light hair. I'll admit, I'm superficial, and I always thought she looked adorable...with her eyes closed. Just the way her eyes bulge always creeps me out.

I still love her though. Her looks were never a biggie in our relationship, because she's so sweet and she always makes me laugh.

I wonder...when we become pretty, will we still be the same on the inside?

We skip class Thursday and Friday and go boarding in the woods. For the most part, we hold hands, but we have to separate sometimes to avoid getting our arms ripped off. It's funny. In this past week, we've become closer than I ever was with Tiara.

We still have to find her so the doctors can fix her. I just hope we aren't too late.


	2. Chapter 2

The wait is excruciating. Jaslene is on my left, tightly squeezing my hand. My mother is on my right, and next to her is my father. Five other Uglies have been called before me and my leg is jiggling from nervousness. Not only that, but I'm soooo hungry, but I can't have food before surgery and blah blah blah. The only thing calming me down is Jaslene's presence. My parents are here for moral support, but Jaslene is there to make sure I don't pass out from fear.

"Hadley, it's your turn." a young nurse walks towards us and gives me a pretty smile. I hug Jaslene tightly and kiss her on the cheek.

"I'll see you soon." I whisper. Tears are forming in her eyes. I blink back my own tears and follow the nurse to the operating room where I'm handed an operating gown.

"They're gonna make me look like the morphos picture I sent them, right?" I ask her.

"Of course, dear. There's nothing to worry about. The only discomfort you feel is after you wake up, but it's only for two weeks."

Two. Weeks? Aah!

I'm being lifted up onto the operating table and a mask is being fitted over my face. Everyone is smiling at me, but I'm scared out of my mind. I knew that after surgery, my skin would be red and puffy but I didn't know it'd be for two weeks! That's fourteen whole days! I may as well just stay holed up in my room until I'm fully healed!

I hardly have time to think about anything else because soon, I'm asleep.

When I wake up, I feel groggy. I blink a few times, then shift on my bed.

Owwwwwwwwwww.

This. Skin. HURTS.

All I can feel is pain. Isn't there a pain medication I can take?

"Good evening, Hadley. Good to see you awake!" a nurse walks into my room.

"Why is everything so bogusly ouching?" I whine, squeezing my eyes shut at tears well up.

The nurse pats my arm and I whine again. "By next week, the pain should be gone, and a week after that, you'll be fully healed."

"Can I have pain pills?"

"Nope. Here are your clothes, and soon there'll be a warden car waiting for you. Hurry along now."  
I pull my clothes on and wince every few seconds. This part of being pretty is so bogus.

Soon, I'm being led out to a warden car and they help me into the passenger seat. I try to make as few facial expressions that I possibly can, which is hard because everything hurts!

"When I was your age, the healing process took a whole month." the warden whispers to me. I laugh, then whine, pressing my face against the window. The window's cool against my face, and the right half stops hurting for a while.

"Can Pretties request to be put into a certain mansion?" I ask, my speech garbled from me pressing my face on the window.

"I don't know. Why? Got a boyfriend you want to be close to?"

I shake my head. "It's one of my friends. We all have December birthdays, mine being the first week of the month. We call ourselves the Snow Angel Trio."

The warden smiles. "That's cute." She stops in front of a huge mansion. "Welcome to Pulcher Mansion. Your room is called Calypso and it's on the third floor." she hands me my bag and I limp out of the car and to the mansion.

"Hadley?" I look up at one of my old friends.

"Cliodna? Is that you?"

She has pin-straight brown hair, blue eyes and is wearing a black dress with flames going up the side.

"Did you just come from the hospital?" she asks me. I nod, then whine again.

"I know, it hurts real bad. How's Jaslene?"

"Just as bug-eyed as ever. I miss her already."

"What's your room name?"

I yawn, then grimace. "Ugh, Calypso." Groan.

Cliodna wraps my arm around her shoulders and ferries me to my room. Along the way, she chats on and on about her life in New Pretty Town since three months ago. Then, she mentions something that catches my attention.

The Crims. The tricky pretties of New Pretty Town. They, for some reason WANT to remember life as an Ugly. All I really want to remember is my friends.

"I think you should try and join. We were sometimes tricky as Uglies."  
"I don't want to remember being an Ugly. I just want to be happy."

I see the door with 'Calypso' on it and walk towards it. The door opens and I walk straight towards the bed.

_"Welcome home Hadley-wa. Please let me know how I can help you get settled in."_

I sigh a long sigh. "Please requisition some pain meds."

_"I am unauthorized to do so. Please get in contact with your surgeon and discuss the matter with them. Is there anything else I can help you with?"_

"Voice interface off!" I yell. Cliodna wrestles me out of my dorm uniform and tucks me in under my comforter. The bed is soft and so far is the only thing that hasn't hurt me all day.

"Why don't they give us medication if we decide not to stay at the hospital? Didn't Rusties used to get to take pain medication home after surgery?"

"Yeah, but some Rusties got addicted to them. Some died from it. It's bogus, but it's for our saftey, you know?"

"Oh." I whisper. If Rusties went through this much pain or worse after surgery, I can understand the addiction. But the whole "dying" thing is enough to make me want to forget about wanting the meds in the first place.

I wonder if Tiara went through this much pain. Maybe that was why she ran away. Maybe she was scared of going through more pain for a new body.

"Tiara ran away. To the Smoke." I whisper.

"What?"

I sit up slightly. "Tiara ran away to the Smoke. Almost three weeks ago." I say again.

Cliodna looks at me, but I can't read her expressions. It's like...fear. And pain. Sadness.

"It took her. _They_ took her. I...have to go." She backs out of the doorway and I try to run after her, but it hurts too much.

I'd never seen so many emotions flow through her at once, but given the circumstances, I understood it. Still, I had to go after Cliodna. I pull my legs out to the edge of the bed and stumble to the door. I see her waiting for the elevator, her back is turned to me. She's saying something into her interface ring but I can barely hear her. I take a deep breath and run a few feet forward. The elevator opens, but she ignores it. She's still talking to her ring.

"-no, Shay! You don't get it. My friend Tiara was going to be sixteen this month. If she ran away a few weeks ago, it means that there is hope for us. Shay...the Smoke _lives_."

I almost fall to my knees. Cliodna is working with supporters of the Smoke? The people who convince Uglies that living like Rusties is okay?!

I groan. I feel so _sick._ This is sick. I run to my room again, reduced to a limp by the time I reach the door to my bathroom. I lean over the toilet and throw up. The taste of bile lingers on my tongue and I heave again. Nothing comes up.

"Resume voice interface. Lock doors to all outsiders. Request for stomach upset medicine." I know that medicine isn't going to help me, but it makes sense to the room since I've just thrown up. I walk to the sink and rinse my mouth out, tears streaming down my face. I had to get into the Crims so I could travel to the Smoke and save Tiara. Cliodna be damned!

I look at my face in the mirror. Even though I'm crying, my eyes aren't red, nor is my nose. Aside from the facial redness and swelling, my face looked really pretty, and so did my luscious hair. I spit into the sink and force a smile.

You gotta fake it till you make it, right?

I know Jaslene will help me. I really can't wait until she gets the operation. I'll be fully healed by the time she becomes Pretty, but it doesn't matter. With me by her side, she'll heal up just fine.

I couldn't wait to hold her again.


End file.
